Topic: WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily usually doesn't devote original coverage to wrongdoing by evangelical ministers, especially one it has championed.
Doug Phillips has long been a WND buddy. in 2002, for example, WND touted how Phillips led a team of homeschoolers that found a dinosaur skeleton. In 2007, WND gave Phillips a column space to "highlight the stark differences between the secular left’s revisionist view of America’s founding and what he sees has 'the historical and providential record of the Christian legacy of law in liberty which was birthed for America at Jamestown in 1607.'"
Which makes it all the more unusual that instead of hiding or outsorcing to other outlets reports on the sordid sexually oriented allegations against Philips, an April 15 article by Chelsea Schilling was devoted to it, highlighting how Phillips "resigned from his position after confessing to an 'inappropriate' relationship" and "is now the subject of a lawsuit that claims he “methodically groomed” and made unwanted sexual contact with a young woman after serving as an authority figure in her life for more than a decade."
Until you get toward the end of the article, that is. Schilling devotes a section of it to homeschooling activist Michael Farris -- with whom Phillips worked for six years as an attorney for Farris' Home School Legal Defense Association -- throwing Phillips under the bus and distancing himself from the patriarchy/quiverfull movement Phillips was a leader in:
HSLDA Chairman Michael Farris told WND, “The reason Doug left HSLDA is because [President] Mike Smith and I, who were his bosses, were growing more and more uncomfortable as he started developing his patriarchy theory. We started limiting his ability to speak on those things while traveling on our behalf. We basically made it clear that he could not pursue those things with his HSLDA hat on. So he eventually chose to leave us so he could do those things because we were not comfortable with where he was headed.”
As for the patriarchy movement, Farris said the teachings are not widely accepted in the broader homeschool community.
“It’s a minority of homeschoolers that believe in it,” he said. “But unfortunately, until very recently, they were getting a lot of visibility in certain places. We have sought to avoid inviting any patriarchy speakers to speak at our national conference.”
While state homeschool organizations run their own events and may choose to have such speakers, Farris said HSLDA has never promoted them.
“Doug has never been invited to speak at our national conference since he left,” Farris said. “We have tried, by example, to keep this stuff outside the mainstream of the homeschooling movement.”
He added, “Frankly, we think it’s time for us to stand up and publicly say this is just wrong.”
Farris, who said he has known Phillips for two decades, expressed concern that Phillips could re-emerge in the homeschooling movement and as a leader in a Christian ministry.
As we've previously noted, Farris' claim not to be a part of the quiverfull movement is dubious given the fact that he has 10 children.
Farris is an even bigger buddy to WND than Phillips was. By contrast, WND has yet to devote any original coverage (or any coverage at all that we're aware of) to allegations that Patrick Henry College -- founded by Farris and where he still serves as chancellor, and where WND editor Joseph Farah sent at least one of his children -- ignored allegations of sexual assaults involving the school's students or blamed the victims.
